Ranch manager Will Hughes stands on a retention pond filled with water from a well on the Apache Ranch Tuesday, July 18, 2017 in Van Horn. Landowner Dan Hughes hopes to drill for and pump as much as 6,000 acre feet of water per year from his property for use in hydraulic fracturing operations. less

Ranch manager Will Hughes stands on a retention pond filled with water from a well on the Apache Ranch Tuesday, July 18, 2017 in Van Horn. Landowner Dan Hughes hopes to drill for and pump as much as 6,000 acre ... more

Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Houston Chronicle

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Ranch manager Will Hughes, left, and Apache Ranch manager George Strickhausen, second from left, walk past a tank holding water pumped from a well on the Apache Ranch Tuesday, July 18, 2017 in Van Horn. Landowner Dan Hughes hopes to drill for and pump as much as 6,000 acre feet of water per year from his property for use in hydraulic fracturing operations. less

Ranch manager Will Hughes, left, and Apache Ranch manager George Strickhausen, second from left, walk past a tank holding water pumped from a well on the Apache Ranch Tuesday, July 18, 2017 in Van Horn. ... more

Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Houston Chronicle

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Storm clouds pass over the Apache Ranch Tuesday, July 18, 2017 in Van Horn. Landowner Dan Hughes hopes to drill for and pump as much as 6,000 acre feet of water per year from his property for use in hydraulic fracturing operations. less

Storm clouds pass over the Apache Ranch Tuesday, July 18, 2017 in Van Horn. Landowner Dan Hughes hopes to drill for and pump as much as 6,000 acre feet of water per year from his property for use in hydraulic ... more

Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Houston Chronicle

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Oil man, rancher Dan Hughes looks to start frac water business in West Texas

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The hunt for frac water in West Texas continues.

Even as Houston water well company Layne Christensen finishes its 100,000-barrel-a-day water facility and 20-mile pipeline system outside of Pecos, a new company is working on a similar project 70 miles to the west, outside of Van Horn.

Dan Hughes, Jr., one of the biggest landowners in the U.S. and owner of an eponymous oil company, has applied to the Culberson County Groundwater Conservation District to export 6,000 acre-feet of water a year, or about 130,000 barrels per day.

Both aim to sell their water to satiate the growing thirst in the booming Delaware Basin for hydraulic fracturing water.

Companies are pumping more and more water down well. Few now use less than 500,000 barrels of water per frac; some are cresting 700,000 or more. And much of that water is now trucked rather than piped to the well.

Layne and Hughes both argue they can provide water more quickly, more reliably and for less money via pipeline.

“If it all pans out the way we’re hoping it does, we think it could be a good business opportunity,” said Blaine Saathoff, a petroleum engineer for Dan Hughes Co., and chief operating officer of the company Hughes formed to export his ranch water.